ECB recommends £500,000 fine and points penalty for Yorkshire Cricket over Azeem Rafiq racism claims

The England and Wales Cricket Board has recommended Yorkshire is given a £500,000 fine and hefty points deductions across all formats over their handling of the Azeem Rafiq racism case.

The suggested sanctions were made to an independent Cricket Discipline Commission panel in London on Tuesday, after Yorkshire admitted four charges in February relating to the mishandling of Mr Rafiq's case, the deletion of documents related to it and a failure to address the use of racist language at the club over a prolonged period.

Six former Yorkshire employees were sanctioned in May, with all of them found to have used a racist slur, while a a seventh - former England captain Michael Vaughan - was cleared in March of using discriminatory language towards a group of four players of Asian ethnicity, including Rafiq, before a T20 match in 2009.

The ECB's recommended fine was broken down in relation to each charge - £100,000 for the mishandling of the report, £100,000 for the wholesale deletion of data, £150,000 for failing to take adequate action relating to racist behaviour and £150,000 in relation to systemic use of racist language over a long period.

It said £350,000 should be suspended for three years while the remaining £150,000 should be payable in instalments between January and June 2024.

Any financial sanctions could hit the club hard, as it has a recently reported £3.5million cash shortfall and still owes £14.9million to the Graves Trust.

The club said last week it was still having "positive conversations" around the long-term financial future of the club and would make an announcement "in due course".

ECB lawyer Jane Mulcahy said the recommendations took into account the finances of Yorkshire and it would be "wholly unproductive" to put Yorkshire out of business, insisting the ECB "is not trying to do such a thing".

The recommendation also claimed the "seriousness of the admissions" required sporting sanctions, and proposed a 48-72 point deduction in the 2023 County Championship, a four-to-six point deduction in the 2023 One-Day Cup and a four-to-six point deduction in the 2023 T20 Blast.

Yorkshire's lawyer Daniel Stilitz responded to the sanctions by saying it had been a "deeply regrettable chapter" in the club's history and re-iterated the club's apologies to Mr Rafiq.

He said there was "absolutely no evidence" to suggest the deletion of emails had taken place because of the ongoing case and said the club had not ignored racist behaviour from supporters previously.

Mr Stilitz also said Yorkshire had already "suffered detriment" because of the events, asking for that to be taken into account in any sanctions passed down.

"What is striking about this case is how far beyond sometimes slightly symbolic measures that Yorkshire has gone," he said.

"The ECB has accepted in their submissions... that the club has undertaken significant equality, diversity and inclusion action in respect of all aspects of its operation.

"The last two years have been some of the most difficult in the club's entire history... Yorkshire is not the only club to have issues with racism, as the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report today acknowledges," he said.

"But really Yorkshire has been a lightning rod for concerns about racism in sports and its reputation, performance and finances have suffered and continue to suffer as a result."

Mr Stilitz said 11 sponsors had withdrawn from the club and that the inability to host international cricket had affected Yorkshire's finances, which he added need addressing this summer to prevent the club going into administration.

He called on punishments handed down to be suspended and said any sanctions imposed would not penalise those responsible.

The next step is for the CDC to consider its decision. It has put a three-to-four-week time-frame on publishing the written reasons for its results.

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